interstice
by kahutia
Summary: The second time Daniel Jackson met Vala Mal Doran. Pre season 9. Spoilers only up to Avalon, and that's just in the author's note.


_In Avalon, it really didn't seem to me as if it were the first time Daniel had seen Vala since Prometheus Unbound. They implied that Vala and Daniel talked (or something) before the beginning of Avalon, because Daniel apparently gave permission for Vala to come through the gate. But still, I thought it seemed like something was missing. So, here you go. I would really like to see other people's versions of how they might've run into each other, too. Come on, you know you want to._

_

* * *

_

Daniel wandered through the marketplace. He'd tagged along with SG-11 out of pure boredom, and wasn't particularly finding anything here of interest. The market was pretty typical, full of baskets of fruit, badly-made rugs, and rather a lot of apolitical free Jaffa selling secondhand weapons and other items they'd probably liberated from the caches of their former masters.

A somewhat familiar voice caught his attention from a stall around the corner.

"That's com_plete_ly absurd! Why do you assume I'm trying to cheat you?"

_Oh crap. _With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Daniel edged into a stall selling rugs and tapestries, hoping to get a good view without being seen.

"Because you always try to cheat me, Vala," explained a merchant in an exasperated tone. "And besides, I'm not a complete simpleton. I can see perfectly well that you haven't actually got the items."

"Well, I may not have them on me at this very moment, but I promise you, I can get them! I just need a little advance on the payment we agreed on."

"If and when you do get them, _then_ I'll talk to you about payment. No advances. Now I'm really very busy, Vala, so if you don't have any actual merchandise for me, get out of my way. And don't get any ideas; I know the exact inventory of my shop at this moment, and if anything's missing after you leave, I'll know exactly who to blame." The merchant made shooing motions at her, and turned to speak to a customer.

"Oh!" Vala scowled at the man (already ignoring her,) muttered something derogatory under her breath in Goa'uld, and suddenly came right in Daniel's direction. He attempted to turn and hide behind a tapestry, but it was too late.

"If it isn't Daniel Jackson of Earth! How lovely to see you!" Her failed transaction forgotten, she grinned widely at him.

"It's _not_ mutual."

She pouted and put her hand on his chest. "Now, don't be so rude. What have I ever done to deserve that?"

He removed her hand. "Oh, let's see. You kicked me in the head, you tried to steal my ship-"

"I _did_ steal your ship!" she corrected gleefully.

"-you lied to me, you shot me, you nearly got me killed by your business associates..." he continued, undeterred.

"Oh, right. Good point. But what have I done to you _lately_?"

Daniel rolled his eyes.

"So, are you all on your lonesome here, Daniel?" Vala tried to take his arm.

He swatted her hand away. "No. SG-11's here, and they're armed, and so am I, and they know where I am and they're expecting me back and you can just forget whatever you have in mind."

"Why Daniel. I don't know where you get these ideas. Can't a girl catch up with an old friend without being accused of being up to no good?" She looked up at him innocently.

"We're. Not. Friends!" God, she was exasperating."Don't you have someplace you need to be?"

She shrugged cheerily. "Not at the moment, no."

"Well, I do. So if you'll excuse me, I'll just be going now." He stepped around her and continued walking along the row of stalls and shops. He glanced behind him to see Vala following him, to his dismay.

Maybe if he didn't look at her she'd go away. Easier said than done; he was rather afraid to take his eyes off her for fear of what she might do to him when he wasn't looking. Sighing, he gave up and entered a shop, resigned to her presence.

"Dr Jackson," the elderly shopkeeper greeted him as he entered. "So nice to see you again!"

"Yeah, how's it going. You said you have something to show me?" Daniel glared at Vala, and removed her hand from his person yet again.

The shopkeeper smiled at them indulgently. "I have something that I'm certain you will find very interesting!" He rummaged under his counter, bringing out something wrapped in a piece of cloth and handing it to Daniel.

Vala stepped closer, peering over Daniel's shoulder as he removed the cloth. "What is it?"

"It is a tablet made by the Ancients. The gatebuilders," the shopkeep explained to Vala as she crinkled her nose in incomprehension. "It tells of the location of a valuable treasure."

Vala's eyes lit up with avarice. "Can you read it, Daniel? Does it say where the treasure is?" She poked him with a finger. "Daniel?"

"Uh, what? Sorry, yes, no, I mean, I can read it. It's not the sort of treasure you're thinking of; there's nothing here about gold and jewels. Specifically it tells of the location of an Ancient repository of knowledge, a sort of information library. And even more specifically, it's a fake." He handed back the tablet back to the shopkeeper. "Better luck next time."

The shopkeeper looked rather unsurprised, though disappointed. Vala leaned over to look more closely at the tablet, and Daniel decided to take advantage of her inattention to make his escape. He cautiously backed out of the tiny shop and hurried down the first alley he came across, hoping she wouldn't follow.

But before he'd gone twenty feet she was beside him again.

"Are you sure about that, Daniel?"

He sighed, resigned. "Yes. It's not even a particularly good fake. I've seen much better."

"But what if -" She looked back in the direction they had come from.

Daniel stopped and looked at the fruit on display at a stand at the other end of the alley. "If you want to waste your time, go right ahead, but I'm not interested."

"Well I can't read that thing, it's written in, uh-" she waved her hand wanting the word.

"Ancient." Daniel chose a piece of fruit and gave the merchant a coin.

"Yes. Ancient. The gate builders, you say?"

"Yes, the Ancients were the original architects of the Stargate network, one of the universe's most advanced species many millions of years." He waved the fruit about, then put it in his pocket, addressing his exciting historical lecture to the fruit vendor, who listened with obvious incomprehension and not a small measure of apathy. Daniel didn't care; a captive audience was hard to come by. Vala nodded, rather suspiciously appearing to be rapt with attention.

Daniel continued on his auto-lecture. "They were a race of advanced humans who learned to ascend to a higher plane of existence. We've found various artifacts they left behind, and my people are interested in obtaining more examples of Ancient technology or just more information about them, which obviously that guy knew, or he wouldn't've bothered trying to sell me that piece of-"

"Yes, well, thanks for the history lesson, but now I think we should not take up any more of this poor man's valuable time." Vala took a step back away from the stall, but Daniel, wary, grabbed her arm and pulled it from behind her back, revealing a piece of fruit in her hand.

The merchant shouted, and Vala turned and fled.

Or tried to; Daniel was not caught entirely unawares, and he had no trouble catching her. He pinned her against the wall by a shoulder and took the fruit from her forcibly. "What are you doing? Pay the man, or give it back." He tried to hand the fruit back to the vendor.

"I don't have any money." Vala grabbed his hand holding the fruit and pulled it toward her, taking a bite of the fruit while he was still holding it. She smirked at the two men triumphantly.

Daniel, revolted, pulled the fruit away from her again. The vendor looked at _him_ with disgust now; oh right, he'd hardly want the fruit back with a bite taken out of it.

"Oh. Here," he dug in his pocket and tossed the irritated merchant another coin. "Sorry about that."

He took Vala by the shoulders and turned her around, pushing her back down the passageway, stopping when they were alone.

"Thank you Daniel," Vala mumbled with her mouth full.

"You're _not_ welcome!" Daniel crossed his arms and glared at her some more.

"You don't have to shout at me," she said sulkily.

"Oh, I think I do. I don't appreciate being used in one of your little scams!" Daniel couldn't remember the last time someone riled him so thoroughly.

"Well I didn't ask you to do anything! Anyway it was your fault he caught me-"

"Are you so hungry that you have to steal food in the marketplace?"

Vala just looked at him, and crossed her arms in imitation of his pose. "Well, yes. I haven't got any money. What am I supposed to do? I could offer sexual favors to the food vendors but have you _smelled_ them? I think most of them haven't changed their clothes in years, much less bathed. Are you going to eat that?"

He realized he was still holding the fruit she had taken a bite of. "Oh. No," Daniel wasn't sure whether she was just playing him or not, but felt slightly guilty either way. And disgusted, on more than one count. He handed her the half-eaten fruit. "You know," he said, watching her bite into it and close her eyes in bliss, "you could've just _asked_ me to buy you a piece of fruit."

"Am I supposed to believe you would have said yes?"

"I just bought you _that_."

She swallowed a bite and leered rather scarily at him. "So you did. Now you, unlike this fair city's inhabitants, are a shining example of cleanliness. Did you want to-"

"No!"

She pouted mockingly. "Didn't we have some good times together on your ship Prometheus?"

He glared at her. "No. We did not."

"That's not the way I remember it. It seems to me you rather enjoyed certain-"

Just then Daniel's radio crackled. "Dr Jackson?"

Oh thank god, SG-11. "Yes! Are you guys done?" Daniel replied into the radio, relieved at the possibility of rescue from the rather alarming and confusing turn this conversation was taking.

"Yes we are, do you need more time? We're at the gate now."

"No I don't! I'll be there in a minute." He cheered up at the thought of getting out of here. He waved at Vala. "Well. Bye then." He turned and hurried in the direction of the gate.

Vala threw the core of her fruit away and followed him. "In a hurry to leave? Where are we going?"

_"I'm_ going home. You're _not_ coming with me. Don't you have someplace you need to be? People to rob, spaceships to hijack?"

"Is it true that your planet's Stargate has a device that squishes people who come through it without permission?" She scrunched up her nose in disgust.

"Well. Not 'squishes,' it's more of a 'splat,' really. But yes. So don't get any ideas." He saw SG-11 waiting for him and breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's good to know." Vala nodded. "Well, it was lovely to see you again, Daniel, but I really must be going. As you said, things to do!" She waved a cheery goodbye, waved over his shoulder to the other team members who looked on curiously, and turned and strolled away, taking a bite of a piece of fruit that she had in her hand.

Daniel looked at her with a sudden suspicion, and patted his pockets. Yeah. That was just great.

He weighed the possible benefits of chasing after her, and decided there were none. He rolled his eyes and walked over to the waiting members of SG-11. At least he was rid of her. With any luck, he'd never see her again.


End file.
